Startup Genome, a resource for tracking and building startups, formed a list of the world's leading high-tech cities for startup entrepreneurs. Tel Aviv precedes New York, which only made it to the fifth place, Los Angeles (3) and London (7).

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Eight factors were tracked to determine the ranking: Total activity of entrepreneurship in the region, amount of active and comprehensive risk capital, total performance and performance potential, how many risks founders took, ability to adopt new technologies, quality of support network, talent and differences between Silicon Valley.

Tel Aviv was said to have the highest density of tech startups in the world. In 2009, there were 63 Israeli companies listed on the NASDAQ, more than Europe, Japan, Korea, India, and China combined.

Yet despite their relative success, Tel Aviv’s startups are below average in terms of adopting new technologies, like programming languages. Startup Genome expects the city to become a niche or regional hub, not a global powerhouse like Silicon Valley.